Ginger Lime Beef Stirfry

I love a good stirfry, easy to fix, not a lot of prep and easily adjustable to suit anyone's taste.

Ginger Lime Beef Stirfry

stirfry-ables

1 lb beef, cut into strips
1 (8 oz) can bamboo shoots, drained
1 (8 oz) can waterchestnuts (diced or sliced), drained
1 to 1-1/2 cups baby corns, halved
1 to 1-1/2 cups steamed green beans, halved

sauce

1/2 cup fresh lime juice
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsbp olive oil
1-1/2 tsp fresh grated ginger
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp Chinese Five Spice Powder
1 tsp cornstarch

After you have sliced and diced your stirfry-ables, set them aside before cooking.

Mix together all but the cornstarch in a large measuring cup. 

In a small bowl, whisk together 2 tbsp of the blended sauce with the 1 tsp of cornstarch and set aside.

Over high heat in a large skillet, cook your beef until halfway done, stirring constantly.  Next add in your bamboo shoots, waterchestnuts, baby corn and sauce.  Stir until well coated.

Add in your sauce-cornstarch mix until sauce starts to thicken.

Mix in your steamed green beans, cook an additional minute or two then serve.

NOTES

Whatever cut of meat you use, you want to make sure it's very tender otherwise the beef will get very tough as it cooks.  You can use a nice beef tenderloin; the Guinea Pig Parents offered up some filet mignon for this dish (with the understanding that they got to keep the leftovers).

I cooked the beef in a dry skillet, but if you want your meat to have a bit more browning on it, add a tsp of oil to the pan first.

I added a minimal amount of cornstarch just to give the sauce a slightly thicker consistency.  If you want it to be even thicker, increase the amount of cornstarch you use (up to 1 tbsp).  The trick to getting the sauce to thicken is to make sure that the liquid in the pan is boiling when you add the cornstarch mix.  This will allow the starch molecules to cook up, thus giving you a thicker sauce.

If you wanted to use different veggies or add in some others, you could easily substitute/add in broccoli, snowpeas, snap peas, carrots or onions.

I served it up over brown rice, but you could use white or jasmine too.  Or if you are trying to watch your carb intake, chop up some white cabbage and serve it over that.

I've got to be honest, there is a much more limey than gingery taste to this dish, but Ginger Lime Beef had a nicer ring to it than just Lime Beef.  You can always add more ginger if your taste leans that way.